IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v246y2025ics016517652400555x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon-adjusted portfolio selection: A counterfactual analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Kharbach, Mohammed
  • Ben Amar, Amine
  • Lalioui, Hafid

Abstract

We investigate investor behavior in a counterfactual scenario where shareholders are subject to a carbon tax, and we compare the structure and performance of the carbon-adjusted portfolio to those of the mean-variance portfolio. Results suggest that applying such a tax does not lead to significant changes in portfolio structure. The impact on performance becomes relatively noticeable only if the tax is particularly stringent. Therefore, implementing a carbon tax could be justified, as it may support decarbonization, at least partially, without significantly affecting investors’ economic outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Kharbach, Mohammed & Ben Amar, Amine & Lalioui, Hafid, 2025. "Carbon-adjusted portfolio selection: A counterfactual analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:246:y:2025:i:c:s016517652400555x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.112071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517652400555X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.112071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin R. Auer, 2016. "Do Socially Responsible Investment Policies Add or Destroy European Stock Portfolio Value?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 381-397, May.
    2. Pedersen, Lasse Heje & Fitzgibbons, Shaun & Pomorski, Lukasz, 2021. "Responsible investing: The ESG-efficient frontier," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 572-597.
    3. Marco Ceccarelli & Stefano Ramelli & Alexander F Wagner, 2024. "Low Carbon Mutual Funds," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 45-74.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ali, Sara & Badshah, Ihsan & Demirer, Riza & Hegde, Prasad & Rognone, Lavinia, 2024. "Climate risk, ESG ratings, and the flow-performance relationship in mutual funds," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Wang, Shaolin & Cheng, Ho Cheung & Wang, Jianli & Yick, Ho Yin, 2025. "The performance of ESG portfolios: Evidence from the Chinese market under COVID-19," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Zhang, Jining & He, Feng, 2024. "The end of ESG? Return spillover between ESG and non-ESG portfolios," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    4. Zhou, Zihan & Wang, Shaolin & Wang, Hongxia, 2025. "The performance of ESG portfolios: A stochastic dominance approach," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Wang, Ren & Bian, Yuxiang & Xiong, Xiong, 2024. "Impact of ESG preferences on investments and emissions in a DSGE framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    6. Chen, Linquan & Chen, Yao & Kumar, Alok & Leung, Woon Sau, 2024. "Firm-level ESG information and active fund management," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    7. Kanamura, Takashi, 2025. "A quantitative model of sustainability risk in finance," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    8. Luo, Qiling & Xue, Minggao & Xiong, Yeqin & Ge, Xiaowen, 2024. "The backfire of mutual funds balancing financial objectives in ESG investments: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    9. Cortez, Maria Céu & Andrade, Nuno & Silva, Florinda, 2022. "The environmental and financial performance of green energy investments: European evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    10. Wang, Jianli & Wang, Shaolin & Dong, Minghua & Wang, Hongxia, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement and stock returns: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    11. Bertelli, Beatrice & Torricelli, Costanza, 2025. "Sustainable optimal stock portfolios: What relationship between sustainability and performance?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 323(1), pages 323-340.
    12. Takashi Kanamura, 2023. "Clean energy and (E)SG investing from energy and environmental linkages," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 9779-9819, September.
    13. Bucher-Koenen, Tabea & Herforth, Anna-Lena & Kirschenmann, Karolin & Ravanbakhshhabibabadi, Monireh, 2025. "Financing the green transition: The role of private capital," ZEW policy briefs 04/2025, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Auzepy, Alix & Bannier, Christina E. & Gärtner, Florian, 2024. "Looking beyond ESG preferences: The role of sustainable finance literacy in sustainable investing," CFS Working Paper Series 719, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    15. Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio & Dam, Lammertjan, 2023. "The contributions of betas versus characteristics to the ESG premium," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 104-124.
    16. Wang, Xiaoteng & Zhou, Bole & Li, Xiaoling, 2025. "Qualified foreign institutional investors and corporate ESG performance: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Kirschenmann Karolin, 2022. "The EU Taxonomy’s (Potential) Effects on the Banking Sector and Bank Lending to Firms," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 275-283, December.
    18. Zhenyu Zhu & Yixiang Tian & Xiaoying Zhao & Huiling Huang, 2025. "Green Washing, Green Bond Issuance, and the Pricing of Carbon Risk: Evidence from A-Share Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-23, May.
    19. Draganac, Dragana & Lu, Kelin, 2025. "Pricing asset beyond financial fundamentals: The impact of prosocial preference and image concerns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    20. Döttling, Robin & Lam, Adrian, 2023. "Does Monetary Policy Shape the Path to Carbon Neutrality?," OSF Preprints kqdar, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:246:y:2025:i:c:s016517652400555x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.